Talk:List of Alaska Routes

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[edit] Wikipedia:State route naming conventions poll/Part2

This state's highway naming convention is up for debate above. Feel free to participate. --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 05:38, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Renumbering?

If Alaskans barely notice their highway numbers (citation recommended for this assertion), then the highways could be renumbered so that a name follows one number, not several. Minor renaming would be required.

Suggest:

• Glenn Highway remain #1
• Tok Cutoff remain #1
• Sterling Hwy remain #1, but include part of the Seward Highway, or be renumbered as #9
• Seward Hwy remain #9 but yield part to the Sterling Hwy, or be renumbered as #1

• Alaska Hwy remain #2
• Richardson Hwy remain #4 and that a portion of #2 be renumbered as #4
• Steese Hwy be numbered as #6 along its entire length, including the part from Fairbanks
• Elliott Hwy be renumbered as #12 starting where it meets the Steese Hwy

• Parks Highway remain #3

• Taylor Highway remain #5, and the Top of the World Boundary connection be #5A

• The Denali Highway remain #8

• Edgerton Highway remain #10
• Copper River Highway remain #10 only if connection to Chitina is a commitment rather than a proposal, otherwise be renumbered #14
• McCarthy Road be numbered if upgraded
• Dalton Highway remain #11

• minor (short) highways currently unnumbered be numbered with three-digit numbers
  • Chena Hot Springs Road #401
  • Hope Highway #103
  • Kenai Spur Hwy #101
  • Palmer-Wasilla Hwy #301
  • Nabesna Road #102
  • Talkeetna Road #302
  • Whittier Road #104
  • Hyder access and Salmon River Road #37

GBC 18:16, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

While it seems logical in practice, the current setup plays total havoc with the infoboxes. It makes more sense to list the highways sequentially and note their respective parts - it's even okay to have Sterling Highway, Seward Highway, and Alaska State Route 1 all be separate articles, and have the AK 1 article be essentially a placeholder, pointing to the larger Sterling Hwy. and Seward Hwy. articles. —Rob (talk) 20:14, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hidden numbers?

The NHS Viewer shows some numbers that are not signed: --NE2 23:01, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

• AK-22: Kenai Spur Highway from AK-1 to Kenai
• AK-65: Dalton Highway from AK-2 to ? (this is of course AK-11 now)
• AK-400: Marine Highway coming out of Seward
• AK-414: East End Road from AK-1 to Kachemak City
• AK-490: Kenai Spur Highway from Kenai to the end
• AK-498: Hope Highway from AK-1 to Hope
• AK-525: North Wasilla-Fishhook Road and South Knik-Goose Bay Road from AK-580 to Point Mackenzie (?)
• AK-580: North Palmer-Fishhook Road from AK-1 to Fishhook
• AK-680: Old Minto Road from AK-2 to the end
• AK-785: Top of the World Highway from AK-5 to Yukon
• AK-809: Lake Louise Road from AK-1 to Lake Louise
• AK-880: Nabesna Road from AK-1 to the end

I also have a 1962 Gousha map that shows a different system of three-digit numbers, for instance AK-509 on the Top of the World Highway and AK-109 on the Kenai Spur Highway. [1] shows AK-505 on the Nabesna Road, the same number used on my 1962 map. My 1993 AAA atlas shows Hollis Road and possibly the Hydaburg Highway as AK-924; this doesn't appear on the 1962 map. Other sources back this one up: [2], and it DOES show up on the NHS Viewer. According to Oscar Voss, this is a forest service road. --NE2 23:05, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't say for sure but I imagine any three-digit highway number in Alaska is purely administrative and of limited (if any) use to the motoring public. The Dalton Highway has, as NE2 notes, been signed as Highway 11. It's possible the Kenai Spur Highway is intended to be signed as Highway 22 but as a general rule I think a route that is not signed is merely carrying an index number for use by the state DOT. It's worthwhile to note that in Alaska, maintenance of public roads outside city limits is almost exclusively done by the state. In some congested areas outside of cities there are road service areas run by local residents -- basically neighborhood road-maintenance agencies -- whose funding and administration may be done by the local borough government or (I suppose) the state if there is no organized borough. McGehee (talk) 16:15, 6 March 2008 (UTC)